Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., dodged on a question Tuesday about socialist upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez banning reporters from public events, deflecting to her office’s treatment of the media.
“Just last week we saw Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explicitly exclude journalists from two of her town halls that were open to the public so I’m interested in your comments on that action by her specifically, but more generally a movement to potentially exclude press from open events,” Warren was asked by the host at the National Press Club event in Washington, D.C.
“I have had press at my events for a long time,” Warren replied. “I just finished my 34th town hall and so far as I know, we had press at every single one of them. And we did availability afterwards, so anyone could come up from the press specifically and as their own questions and get it live on tape. I think that’s the best way to run a democracy.”
However, Warren, a potential 2020 contender, did not say anything about the treatment of the press by the New York congressional candidate who beat out Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary race earlier this summer.
Ocasio-Cortez refused to allow the media to attend or cover a gathering in Corona, Queens, and another event in the Bronx earlier this month.
Ocasio-Cortez did not want reporters at these community events because they asked too many questions at another gathering, according to her campaign manager, who said she was “mobbed” by the media at an event early last week “even though we said no Q&A and no one-on-one [interviews].”
By Friday afternoon, campaign spokesman Corbin Trent told the Washington Post the campaign will no longer block reporters from attending her events. He also defended the two bans, saying they live-streamed the meetings.
The no-press events were part of her “listening” tour that allowed her to take part in a “lively, compassionate discourse with a diversity of viewpoints.”
[Also read: Elizabeth Warren proposes banning Congress from owning stocks as part of sweeping anti-corruption bill]
